Bagchi, a lawyer, had reacted sharply to his “personal attacks” on West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary after the Congress’ victory in the Sagardighi by-election on Thursday and reportedly clashed with the CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo. Mamta Banerjee was criticized.
Bagchi called a counter press conference against Banerjee where he cited a book written by former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Deepak Kumar Ghosh, which reportedly has some references about the CM’s personal life.
He said that since Banerjee had launched a “personal attack” on the Congress by citing a sensitive issue like the suicide of Chaudhary’s daughter, she would now counter it by circulating a soft copy of Ghosh’s book through WhatsApp.
The arrest has drawn huge criticism from various corners, as it comes less than 48 hours after Left Front-backed Congress’ Barian Biswas defeated TMC candidate Debasish Bandopadhyay by a huge margin of 23,000 votes in the bypolls.
After his arrest, Bagchi was brought to the Bertola police station while party workers protested outside the station.
“They finally arrested me after a search operation at my residence for about five hours. I am being harassed for speaking the truth about the chief minister,” Bagchi said.
He said Bagchi has been booked under several sections of the IPC, including 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and other sections.